Peppe is a 17 month old entire male border collie, with stunning markings. His caregivers contacted me when he was a border collie puppy of just 8 weeks old, within days of his owners bringing him home. They wanted to make sure they did things the right way from the very start, and that care and desire to bring him up well is exactly what’s made them such fantastic owners since, pushing all the way to do right by Peppe, even when it hasn’t been easy.
It was as we started working together that it became clear his behaviour was more than typical puppy behaviour. A lot of border collie puppies can be land sharks, that’s normal enough, but Peppe’s was on another level entirely. Whatever we tried, his puppy biting was intense and painful, and he simply couldn’t settle or sleep, even overnight. His poor owners were exhausted. Then, gradually, the other symptoms started to appear: resource guarding, an inability to settle, reactivity to people, other dogs and traffic, real sensitivity to sound, and a level of attachment to his female owner that meant he couldn’t cope if she left the room, or if he was left in his crate.
Individually, none of these things are alarming in a young puppy. But when you see this many, this intensely, together, it’s usually a sign of something more than “normal” puppy behaviour. So it was time to start digging.
What did we find first?
The first thing we picked up on testing was giardia, a gut parasite that’s well known for being difficult to shift. It took around four rounds of retesting, and input from a specialist, before his treatment finally worked.
Giardia can cause ongoing gut discomfort, and gut discomfort in a young dog can easily spill over into irritability, poor sleep and general unsettledness, so this explained Peppe’s behaviour. Giardia can also cause damage to the gut lining, which leads to ongoing tummy discomfort and a gut microbiota imbalance, so we didn’t expect things to be easy going forward. Once the giardia cleared, Peppe’s poos improved considerably. However, although many of the other behaviours we’d been seeing did improve slightly, the improvement wasn’t to the degree we’d expected. We started to suspect that something else was still going on.
Ruling out the obvious
Collies are known to be prone to orthopaedic issues, hip dysplasia being one of the most common, and Peppe had started lifting his legs oddly, with a gait that just didn’t look quite right. So the next step was x-rays. These came back clear.
This is often where cases like Peppe’s stall. The well-known explanations have been checked off, the dog is still struggling, and often vets and other professionals, who don’t know how severe the behaviour is, will fall back on “well, he’s a collie, they’re just intense, he needs more exercise, more herding, more agility.” For Peppe, none of that would have got to the bottom of it, and even more exercise was the last thing he needed.
An unexpected answer
The turning point came from a social media post by another collie-experienced trainer, Sarah Hedderly, describing occult tethered cord syndrome (OTCS). An uncomfortable number of the symptoms matched what we were seeing in Peppe.
Tethered cord syndrome happens when the spinal cord becomes abnormally anchored, so it’s stretched and placed under tension every time the dog moves, causing spikes of intense pain. What makes it particularly easy to miss is that a standard static MRI can look COMPLETELY normal, even when the condition is present.
The recognised signs include:
- reluctance to jump
- difficulty using stairs
- low tail carriage
- pain when the lumbosacral area (lower back) is palpated
- heightened sensitivity to touch
- restlessness or sudden irritability
- a short, stiff or short-strided gait
- bunny hopping
- a wide, abducted hindlimb stance
- intermittent lameness or skipping in the hind legs
- turning to look at their own hindquarters as if startled
- chewing at the tail, flank or hind feet
- suddenly sitting down mid-walk
- occasional urinary or faecal incontinence
- unexplained anxiety, tail chasing, or reduced willingness to play or move
Peppe was showing a striking number of these.
Getting to a diagnosis
Armed with this, Peppe’s owners sought a referral to one of the handful of UK specialists who investigate occult tethered cord syndrome, Dr Ane Uriarte. It wasn’t an easy path. They met real resistance along the way, and ended up having to change vets to find someone willing to pursue it further. Eventually, Peppe was scanned, and the diagnosis was confirmed.
Three months ago, he had surgery to release the cord.
Where is Peppe now?
The videos his owners have shared since tell their own story. This was a dog who, not long ago, would struggle with people and other dogs in a wide open field with lots of space. He couldn’t cope with traffic at all. Now he’s out and about on holiday, on edge, but coping with exactly the kind of environment that would have completely overwhelmed him just a few months ago. He still has a long way to go and it’s still early days after the surgery, but he is doing so well.
There were points along the way where his owners came close to giving up with him. It’s been a genuinely stressful journey. But their willingness to keep asking questions, and to trust their instincts even when test after test came back clear, is exactly why Peppe is doing so well today.
What can we learn from Peppe’s story?
So often, when a collie is showing behaviours like Peppe’s, the answer we hear is some version of “that’s just collies for you,” more exercise, more herding work, more agility. And sometimes, that genuinely is the answer. But underneath persistent behaviour issues, there’s very often pain, discomfort, or an underlying medical condition, and it takes someone who really understands collies to know the difference between normal puppy quirks and something that needs investigating properly.
If your dog’s behaviour doesn’t quite add up, or progress has stalled despite doing everything right, it’s always worth flagging your concerns with your vet and asking whether further investigation might help. Peppe’s story is proof of what’s possible when everyone involved keeps asking, “could there be more going on here?”
If any of this sounds familiar and you’re not sure where to start, get in touch – it’s always worth talking it through.
Shared with the owners’ full permission. This is one dog’s individual case, not a diagnostic checklist, so please always have any similar concerns assessed by your vet.